Dear students, Betsy DeVos may not be prepared for office, but you must prepare for her - The Hechinger Report

Dear students, Betsy DeVos may not be prepared for office, but you must prepare for her

The confirmation vote on the Secretary of Education nominee has been delayed amid criticism

Dear students:

The confirmation vote on the U.S. Secretary of Education nominee has been delayed until January 31, but the Senate needs to give her a few more years, not days, to prepare.

If you watched Betsy DeVos’s (first) Senate confirmation hearing last week, it might have brought back memories of the last time you took an oral exam. Specifically, an oral exam you hadn’t properly prepared for. Maybe you got very religious, praying for a few questions you could confidently answer. But your least favorite teacher wouldn’t let you off the hook. And yes, she saw sweat dampen your shirt as you stuttered and mumbled, responding with too many or too few words because you didn’t have the right ones.

Now review the DeVos hearing. Notice any similarities? Would you have given her passing marks? Her responses to questions about the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act alone would have failed her.

In response to former Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Senator Tim Kaine, who asked, “Should all schools that receive taxpayer funding be required to meet the requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act?” DeVos replied, “I believe that’s a matter best left to the states.”

But states’ unequal treatment of people with disabilities was the very reason Congress passed that important act. Clearly, DeVos hadn’t done her homework. And as if that weren’t enough, she actually defended school personnel possessing guns, because they might need “to protect from potential grizzlies.”

(An aside: If you’re on the pro-guns-in-schools side in a debate, don’t invoke grizzlies if you want people to take you seriously.)

No, Betsy DeVos is not prepared to lead our country’s educational system, but students, you must prepare for her.